Human Cytomegalovirus in pregnancy

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has been described as an important etiological agent of intrauterine infection in pregnant women which may lead to some serious results such as miscarriage, stillbirth, cerebellar malformation, fetus developmental retardation. In the present study from the December 2011 to April 2012 in Kirkuk province we examined 110 serum samples from pregnant women and 80 non pregnant as control group for the presence of IgM and IgG antibodies against HCMV by standard enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) technique. The results was 65(59%) of the cases were seropositive for HCMV-IgG and 6(5.46%) cases were seropositive for HCMV-IgM and 12(10.9%) cases were seropositive for both HCMV-IgG and HCMV-IgM at the same time . Other women (controls) they were lower rates for seropositive HCMV antibodies. The highest rate of IgG was found in rural area while IgM found in urban area. There was an increasing trend in IgM positivity rate with age in pregnant women between 24-29 years. The IgG seroprevalance rate highest in second trimester of pregnancy while the maximum rate of abortion (73.07%) was found in the first trimester of pregnancy. High seropositive rates for HCMV in pregnant women indicate that most of the women were exposed to these viruses before child-bearing age as well as during the pregnancy.